The Heresy of Survivalism

Evidently, SurvivalBlog was the focus of a Yahoo! News story on the troubled times we live in and the corresponding interest in survivalism. A link to a MetaFilter thread followed the article, from which I gathered the following opinions about the vocal majority:

- The State, all-powerful and all-knowing, will rescue everyone without fail in a crisis situation.

- Having more than a few weeks of food on-hand is selfish and paranoid, and the amount in excess is directly proportional to one's paranoia and antisocial sentiments.

- Firearm ownership signifies sexual dysfunction/deviancy, and anyone that would use a firearm to protect themselves, their liberty or property is "already dead inside".

- If the future has any sort of apocalyptic events that will precipitate hardship, it would be preferable to die than try to survive. Should survival be unavoidable, kill and loot from those that are prepared.

- I (my room-mate/siblings/parents/dog/friend/lover/ancestor) experienced a three-day blackout, and (I/we/they) made s'mores and told stories, which by induction, proves that all preparation beyond three days is unnecessary if one has candles and s'mores.

- Lowering myself to preparing for a disaster would cheapen my morals, poke quarter-sized holes in my faith and pride in my society, and cause the milk to sour.

- Any impending collapse is the fault of the Bush administration for failure to subsidize low-income hope/change.

I imagine that the vocal majority is college-educated, registered with the bipartisan juggernaut and unaware of the nature of fractional-reserve banking. Which is to say, blissfully ignorant of history and unwilling to be bothered while worshipping at the altar of the State. Furthermore, I doubt that the average snarky pedant has walked more than ten miles at a stretch, fired a rifle, or eaten something that they had to kill. Prosperity, in their eyes, is a matter of belief.

And so, following the weekend of the final exam for America's Great Depression, echoes from the past attempts to stabilize an inflationary economic model continue to build amidst the increasingly fervent attempts to avert disaster. No amount of belief in the fundamental goodness of human nature will mitigate the cascading economic failures that are inherent to the international banking systems that were modeled on central-banking theory. Not only has it ruined the economies of multiple nations, but it has left virtually no safe haven from the following holocaust. And yet, the vocal majority welcome it with open arms, and expect salvation within the year at the hands of the State.

So it goes.